21 May How Product Content Can Help Your Business Compete

More and more companies have contracts with Amazon. They continue to push into this space and there’s no reason to believe they’ll slow down. – Justin King

I had the pleasure of speaking with lightED – the new online magazine from NAED. In this conversation, I talked with Jean Whatley on how a strong product content strategy can help distributors differentiate from and compete with the giants like Amazon.

Here is an excerpt:

…[To] stay ahead, that knowledge has to be vividly showcased online, according to King. ‘Distributors already do that with their customers, on the phone or on the sales floor. It’s just about taking that knowledge out of your sales people’s heads, from your inside sales and customer service, and translating that online.’

King suggests a product content program, in which distributors create a process where they’re continually creating content for their e-commerce sites by writing better product descriptions, featuring better images, even producing short videos to demonstrate the company’s expertise. It doesn’t have to be an all or nothing endeavor. ‘You don’t have to do all 10,000 of your products. You start with 50. You can start with 10. Do 10 this month, 10 next month, that is absolutely doable.’

…Beyond the online presence, there are some other innovations distributors might have to consider…like figuring out how to get product to customers faster and more efficiently. In Baltimore, where King lives, he can order something from Amazon and get it delivered to his door inside two hours. In some cases, distributors could do that too, with a little creative thinking.

‘Bring on some 1099 drivers in your area, who will drive their own cars and can take a product from your warehouse to a customer’s site,’ says King. ‘Amazon flex does it. This is something you can try out easily. Start with one driver, part-time, under a contract saying you’re not liable. Test out with two big customers and see how it goes.’

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